CardoCardo PACKTALK Outdoor Helmet Communication System, Great for Ski, Snowboard and Cycling (Black, Single Pack)

First off, I was really interested in the Milo, but they weren't shipping when I needed them to (I don't know if they're even shipping yet 4/2023). I decided to go with the Cardo because; the price is the same, they're ready to ship, & Cardo has a good history of similar products in the motorcycle world. I'm glad I went this way.The system works as advertised. You can talk hands free across some pretty good distance. I had no issue synching up 5 units together & all of us talking to one another. I've used this skiing & it lasts all day out on the hill. When I power it down it says that there is still 50% battery. Once the units are all paired together, they will re-pair when powered up next to each other the next day.The unit has controls on it that are easy to access & manipulate with ski gloves on, there's also voice command but I didn't really use it that much. But once you learn what buttons do what command, it's pretty intuitive.This has no built in speaker, so you need to use the provided speaker/mic. They really only fit in the ear pads of a helmet, so you'll need to have that. They do provide stick on options but I don't know where you might mount them on a helmet. Maybe if you have an old pair of headband style headphones, you could rig it up into that. Maybe Cardo will make something.The alternative is to use the plug in jack, where you can plug in a pair of corded headphones with a mic so that you get the full function. IT DOES NOT WORK WITH CORDED HEADPHONES WITH A VOLUME UP/DOWN BUTTON!!! So no apple headphones. I picked up a pair of in ear Sony headphones that work with it.You typically mount it on the side chin straps of the helmet, but a sticky tab is provided for a full face helmet. The clip would work on a backpack strap as well if you don't wear a helmet.To get the most out of it; play music, answer phone calls, adjust the volume levels, etc., you need to pair it with your phone & the app. If you have more than one, I'd suggest pairing & updating with each persons phone so that you don't end up having issues figuring out which unit is paired with your own phone.Once paired, it's really great to listen to music in the background of the entire conversation. Your own music only plays for your unit, not everyone else's.Limits: While skiing, having a hill or mountain blocking caused the units to cut in & out at about a 1/2 mile. If there was someone with another unit between, it helped add strength & distance to the connection. There were no issues with trees, it was really just limited by piles of earth. One annoying thing is the length of the announcement when 'group connection is lost'. If you're apart from your group, but just on the edge of it, you'll jump in & out of the connection, & you'll keep getting announcements. I also wish it worked with apple headphones. One last thing is the delay. It's not an issue if you're away from each other, but riding up the chairlift you hear yourself talk back to you because you get picked up by other mics & you hear the person twice (like an echo) because you hear their voice direct, then the transmitted voice. Not a big issue, easy to just mute your mic or mute the conversation, but something you might not expect.I'm seeing another unit advertised at a much cheaper price point, but it's still in the kickstarter phase so who knows if that gets off the ground. The cardo is ready to ship & it works. I really like using it & it's going to be Christmas/birthday gifts for the rest of the family that skis & boards. I highly recommend these, but your milage may vary depending on the company you keep.

First year snowboarding and this made the experience 10x better, being able to communicate with friends or family on the mountain is really nice, especially at different skill levels and get separated from the group, I picked up snowboarding pretty quick and was faster than my friends and got separated, but with the cardo I was able to locate them only a couple minutes later. It doesn’t work as good if you’re on separate trails but overall a great experience.

When you and your group have these your ski experience goes to a new level. No more skiing 500 yards and having to stop to see if anyone fell or is someone can’t quite keep up. “Turn left at the bottom” or “take the second lift” is now said instead of stopping. I feel like we got more runs in because we were skiing not stopping to talk. The music from the speakers is great. Never ran less the. 25% battery remaining after skiing 7 hours a day with music going. Range of 3/4 mile or more. If we were out of range. It reconnected on its own as soon as in range. If you ski with a group. BUY THIS. you won’t be disappointed.

The only exception i don’t like is that when you have an incoming call it doesn’t say who it is.. other than that.. it’s amazing, cold weather didn’t really bother the battery life too much while on the snowmobiles.Quality of sound is great. And I like that I can listen to music as well..My other gripe is the microphone cable length…. Could be longer or have the wire alongside the two speaker wires.. less strain on the cable and would be tucked away easier with the foam padding inside the helmet.

We have tried various walkie talkies to be able to communicate when we are in the snow but nothing was really user friendly like Cardo. We can talk to each other constantly and I think I want my husband to wear his ski helmet all the time because he hears me better than if I’m just talking to him. The sound quality for the speakers is amazing and it’s really great to be able to take calls without fumbling around for a phone.

Set up was as easy as designed and the quality is worth the money I will be buying more to create a bigger group for my students as I am a snowboarding instructor #cmfer

Just used these for the first time on a two-day trip with two of us. It was amazing to be able to talk the whole time rather than the front person waiting periodically along each run to catch up. It absolutely made skiing together more fun, and I can't wait to try it in a larger group.Range is as advertised if there is line of site. It got garbled when we were around trees from each other and seemed worse near the base area perhaps due to lots of other electronics around.The cable from the earpieces comes out the wrong side for typical helmet zippers, but we passed the cable through an existing hole near the right ear.Battery life was great. On a fresh charge, we ended a full 9am-4pm day with Bluetooth music and talking at either 25% or 50% battery life remaining. It's nice to be able to pop the unit off a helmet easily for charging, unlike standard Bluetooth chips.Settings in the app took a little fiddling to get balanced volume between music and speech and to make it drop the music volume when someone talked. Once set, that worked perfectly. Muting your mic is easy when riding the lift together. Controls were easy to do by hand...did not use the voice-activated controls.